One quarter of working over-55s expect never to retire

More than one in four over-55s in the UK expect they will never be able to retire fully for fear of running out of money, research from retirement specialist Key Retirement has found.

In a survey of more than 3,000 UK adults, 28% of those who are working and over the age of 55 said they will never be able to give up work completely, with one in 10 saying they will continue working full-time as long as they are able.

Of the 55-plus year olds who are still in work, about three quarters said they are still working because they fear running out of money.

Dean Mirfin, group director at Key Retirement, says: "It is striking to find so many over-55s do not believe they will ever be able to afford to retire and paints a worrying picture of the current state of retirement.

Pension shortfall

"Of course, many of those planning to work until they drop may be entirely happy about it. But the other side of the coin is that millions are worried about having enough money to survive in retirement and that is a major factor in staying in work. Even those who plan to retire are not entirely certain when they can afford to."

Broken down into regions, it appears that those in Wales are most likely to expect not to retire (28%), while those in the north east were least likely to predict having to work indefinitely (14%).

New figures from Prudential also indicate the size of the pension shortfall. They show that a third of self employed people over the age of 55 have no pension savings. Overall, six% of those surveyed expect never to be able to retire.

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